History is lousy with sons following in their fathers’ footsteps, carrying on the family business and further prolonging, exploring and building enduring legacies in roles from president, butcher, CEO, artist, or just about every occupation that one can find themselves in. While many of these attempts are valiant, they don’t always work out, shadows are cast, and offspring end up living within them.

Lon (Creighton) Chaney Jr., one of cinema’s most enduring monster actors, carried on the legendary monster-acting that his father began, and formed his own powerful legacy as the only actor to play all four of Universal Studios major monsters – those being The Wolf Man (his most notable character), Dracula (once, in 1943’s Son of Dracula), The Mummy (three times) and Frankenstein (once in 1942’s ‘Ghost of Frankenstein’ and later in a live TV broadcast).

Along with Chaney Sr., Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, he’s considered to be one of the great cinematic monster thespians – not a small honor to be bestowed upon a second generation actor. Even one who once went through the aforementioned live broadcast of ‘Frankenstein’ so drunk that he didn’t realize that it wasn’t a dress rehearsal, and as a result, played an exceptionally gentle Monster who refused to break any of the props until ‘later’.

Of course, the Universal Monsters have been immortalized and appreciated every which way, and have spawned countless collectibles. Among my favorite Lon Chaney Jr. items are, of course, the action figures. Sideshow Toys has done an amazing job of making very actor-specific Universal Monster action figures, busts, statues and all manner of neatness. Among their artifacts are three 12” figures of Chaney Jr., as The Frankenstein Monster, as The Wolf Man, and as Larry Talbot – a figure that reveals his true human face in full. Of course, the latter two figures were his most notable roles, as Bela Lugosi usually gets all of the credit for Dracula and Karloff for Frankenstein.

Philatelists will note 1997 as the year that the US Postal Service immortalized Chaney Jr. on a postage stamp as The Wolf Man – alongside the aforementioned other monsters, as well as the notable Phantom of the Opera (played by Chaney Sr.).

The Official Lon Chaney website (constructed and maintained by great grandson Ron Chaney) actually provides a fairly extensive list, as well as buying opportunities for both Jr. and Sr. collectibles, although at the time of this writing, the site seems to be only half-working. Still, it’s worth a click-through to see just how many Wolf Man THINGS have been made. Finally, a Wolf Man in a snowglobe. Finally, he’s in his natural environment, and somewhere out there, a Wolf Man duvet is waiting for me.

Most of Chaney’s monster performances can be collected on the excellent ‘Legacy Collection’ DVD sets released directly by Universal Studios. Four Wolf Man performances are collected in ‘The Wolf Man Legacy Collection’, as well as a Frankenstein performance on the ‘Frankenstein Collection’, ‘Son of Dracula’ is contained in another set, and all three Mummy films in yet another. For around only $20 a set, and with four to six films per set, the real diversity and range of Chaney Jr. is explored. You can round out your monster collection with the remaining two sets, dedicated to The Creature (from the Black Lagoon) and The Invisible Man. If you’re a real completist, you can find the box set that includes all of these, plus some ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’ stuff. And watch out for the ‘Phantom’ Barbie & Ken set that was made exclusively for FAO Schwartz in 1997, worth about $300 now.

There have been no Wolf Man Ken dolls. They’ll deform his face and stick a mask over it, but there’s no way that Mattel is going to make him hirsute.

So pop in a monster movie today, and send up a big ol’ ‘ROCK ON!’ to Mr. Chaney.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.